


Throwing Insults

by goingtothetardis



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, No Angst, References to Amy/Rory, Romance, Telepathy, fluffy and happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 06:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12205803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goingtothetardis/pseuds/goingtothetardis
Summary: When Rose's morning gets disrupted by a rude bloke in a hurry, the last thing she expects is for him to be her soulmate.





	Throwing Insults

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, look at me! I'm _finally_ writing a Soulmate AU! When I saw [this](http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/136807621997/imagine-your-otp-living-in-a-world-where-as-soon) prompt, I had to write it. And it's Soulmate Month at DoctorRosePrompts, so this is for that as well!
> 
> I'm still trying to figure out how to make it work for a canon based fic, but for now, have this fun little Ten x Rose AU. :D I hope you enjoy it, as I certainly had fun writing it! It's my first time writing Amy, and her appearance was a bit of a surprise. 
> 
> Thanks very much to the lovely Crazygirlne for the beta.
> 
> Also, it should be obvious, but italicized bits used without quotations are telepathy parts. (Almost all italicized parts.)

Rose shivers as she steps outside her favorite coffee shop and takes a sip of her freshly brewed hazelnut latte, closing her eyes as she savors the warm, caffeinated drink. 

Thinking she’d been late to work this morning, Rose had sprinted from her flat to the bus without her usual dose of necessary caffeine. However, upon arriving to work at Henricks, she’d discovered her alarm clock had been a hour off, so she’d taken advantage of the extra hour for an infrequent treat. 

With the first taste of coffee on her tongue, Rose steps forward to retrace her steps back to Henricks, and without warning, a brown blur of pinstripes and wild hair bumps into Rose, sending her coffee cup flying into the air. 

“Oi!” she shouts, stumbling forward slightly. “Watch it!”

The human cannon ball who’s just run her over looks back over his shoulder and briefly catches her gaze. With an apologetic face, he sputters a regretful, “Sorry, so sorry,” before continuing his sprint down the sidewalk, his long brown coat flapping in the wind.

Rose sighs. _Bloody wanker_ , she thinks, looking morosely at her spilled coffee on the ground. It had been her only coffee treat allowed this week, as her life as a full-time art student and part-time sales person at Henricks doesn’t exactly allow for a lot of excess spending. And now that coveted £3 is spilled all over the sidewalk. 

_Oi! Who’s calling me a wanker? What’d I do?_ a rather indignant voice answers. 

Rose gasps and stops in her tracks, her eyes widening at the strange voice that expands unexpectedly in her mind. At least, she thinks it’s in her mind. Attempting to look inconspicuous, Rose turns her head from side to side and peers at her fellow passerby. None of them appear to have any interest in her and pass by without a glance.

Could it be?

 _Are you in my head?_ Rose thinks, sending the thoughts out to whoever heard her earlier words. 

There’s only one person who’d ever be able to communicate with her in such a way – _a soulmate_ – but the very idea is so barmy, she almost doesn’t allow herself to entertain the possibility. Soulmates are rare, so rare that their very existence is almost legend, save for the unproven occasional reports that pop up every few years. Who had the most recent couple been? A redhead named Donna and a bloke named Lee, that’s right. Rose learned about the specifics in school history lessons, and had only briefly entertained the wistful yearning of “what if” before falling into a disastrous relationship with Jimmy and promptly giving up that fairytale daydream.

An answering voice pulls her from her thoughts. _What do you mean, am I in your head? You called me a bloody wanker, and–_ There’s silence for a moment. _Oh. Oooooooh, but if I’m in your head, and you’re in my head, that means…_

 _That means that if you heard me call you a bloody wanker, you’re the git who knocked my coffee on the ground,_ Rose thinks at this stranger, still intensely annoyed despite the intrigue of the new and strange mental communication.

 _Oh, are you the one I bumped into?_ the voice asks, sounding a little bit put off by her question. _Errr, yes, well, ehm. Sorry about that. I would have stopped, but one of my experiments at the lab exploded and…_

_’Bumped’ implies you gently nudged me. And with the way my only coffee for the week is now a puddle on the ground, I think ‘crashed’ is maybe a better word for it._ Rose knows she’s being overly petty about her coffee, especially since there’s clearly a more obvious subject to focus on, but she’s still having a hard time wrapping her mind around that fact that she, Rose Marion Tyler, might actually have a soulmate. 

_Blimey, you must really need your coffee hit in the morning,_ the bloke grouses, with what she’s almost certain is followed with a roll of the eyes, even though she can’t see him. 

Rose shakes her head as she starts walking down the sidewalk back to Henricks. _You’re a bit rude, yeah?_ It figures the person sharing this connection with her is, in fact, a complete git. 

_That’s me,_ the voice sighs. _Rude… and not ginger. Donna got all the good recessive genes in the family. Still though…_ He trails off a moment. _That means you’re my soulmate. That’s brilliant! I didn’t think I’d ever be so lucky, especially not after Donna found hers._

Despite her irritation, Rose can’t help the way a smile spreads across her face at hearing the excitement in his voice. _Heard about them in school, yeah? But never thought it’d happen to me. I’m just… well, me. I’m nothing special_ Something inside her keeps her from blurting out her name already. Just because they’re soulmates doesn’t mean she’s obligated to _be_ with this person. She’d rather get to know him over a plate of chips first. 

_Oh, I already know you’re something special. And who says you don’t deserve a soulmate?_ he asks. _Especially when you get me?_

Rose isn’t sure if laughter can be telepathically communicated, but she does her best to think of her mystery bloke in brown when she barks out a skeptical laugh. _You think you’re so impressive._

 _I am so impressive!_

Rose only laughs harder. 

_But to prove to you that I’m not a complete ‘bloody wanker,’ as you like to call me, how about I buy you a new cup of coffee?_ he asks, and she can sense the hope laced around the edges of his words. 

_I’d expect nothing less,_ Rose answers with a smirk. _Unfortunately, I have to get back to work. And, um, didn’t you say something about a lab explosion?_

 _Oh bugger!_ he yells. _I gotta go!_

With that, he’s gone from her mind, at least for now. Rose shakes her head in bewilderment, completely unsettled – and not in a bad way – from the whole exchange. What are the odds that she has a soulmate? From what she’d learned in school, soulmates share a telepathic connection that is forged the first time they lay eyes on each other. The connection strengthens and develops with time, starting with intentional back and forth conversation between the two individuals before eventually progressing to allowing the matched soulmates to not only share thoughts and emotions, but to develop the mental control to keep their partner from experiencing every thought and feeling. 

Because of her unsuccessful dating history, however, Rose remains cautious about allowing herself to be with someone, simply because they’re her soulmate. It feels a bit like an obligation, and she likes to be in control of her own life, thank you very much. At the same time, it’s her _soulmate_. It’s worth the chance to at least meet him and feel the desire to call him something other than ‘bloody wanker,’ isn’t it? Soulmates are supposed to be a _good_ thing, not something to be feared.

* * *

“Rose, you good?” Amy, her redheaded Scottish coworker and friend, asks as soon as she steps into the break room.

“Hmmm, what?” Rose asks, pulled from her thoughts. 

“I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen you so out of it before.” Amy laughs and nudges Rose on the shoulder as she walks to the company coffee pot. 

Rose chews on a nail. She’s definitely not telling anyone about her new soulmate yet, but at least she has a cover story. “Some bloke ran into me, an’ my coffee spilled all over the ground. Now I have to drink this sludge.” 

Amy grimaces. “Might as well wait or turn the kettle on for some instant brew. I think Adam made it today, and you know how he thinks he makes the best coffee in the world.”

They both laugh and roll their eyes, well familiar with exasperated conversations about their know-it-all coworker. 

“But that’s not all, is it?” Amy pins Rose down with a speculative look.

Rose flushes and presses her lips together. 

“There _is_ something else! I knew it!” She pumps her fist in the air in victory. “Alright, what is it? Out with it.”

Knowing it’ll be futile to resist her stubborn friend, Rose looks around to make sure no one else is around. “Well,” she starts, her voice a soft whisper, “I think I have a soulmate.”

Amy stares at her a moment before erupting into laughter. “No way.” For a brief moment her eyes glaze over, and then she comes back to the present. “Rory and I are soulmates.”

“You are?” Rose asks in surprise, thinking of her two friends sharing a telepathic connection.

“Yep! But very few people know, only our closest family. And now you. We met when we were kids, so it was a little hard to understand what was happening.”

Gazing at her friend in awe, she says, “So you’ve had this telepathic connection for a long time.”

“Yeah, but it was never uncomfortable or awkward. Once we met, it…” She trails off, lost in thought for a moment. “It was always Rory. Before you and I met, I tried to shove off for a while and make my own choices, tried to prove the soulmate system wrong. Even went out on a few dates with someone else, but in the end, I realized how stupid I’d been for trying to give up this amazing gift. Thankfully Rory understood, sort of, since he could feel what I was feeling.”

Rose looks into the cup of coffee she’d prepared, thinking. “I didn’t think I’d ever have a soulmate. I thought they were supposed to be rare.” 

Amy smirks. “Yeah, that’s what they want you to think.”

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“There’s this government organization called Torchwood, but there’s nothing they can do about it, besides making other people think soulmates are nonexistent. Not everyone has a soulmate, but a lot of people do, and it just… It’s just something that happens. Some people are wired a little differently,” Amy explains as she munches on a package of crisps. 

“Is it dangerous? Torchwood?” Rose asks, suddenly nervous. 

“Naw, not anymore. Years ago, Torchwood tried to do experiments on soulmates, and a bloke named Jack Harkness stopped that before it gained momentum. There’s a rumor he almost lost his own soulmate – Ianto Jones, I think his name is – in the experiments, and after Jack put a stop to that, he took over leadership. He decided it’d be better if the world didn’t know about soulmates, for our protection.” Amy pops a crisp in her mouth and chews, eyeing Rose in contemplation, then swallows. “So, how’d you meet?”

With a laugh, Rose launches into her story. “Remember the bloke who crashed into me?”

Amy’s eyes widen, and she snorts in laughter. “Bloody wanker.”

“That’s what I called him!” She smirks. “That’s the first thing I ever said to him.” 

“Sounds like your soulmate romance is off to a great start, Rose.”

“He called himself ‘impressive.’”

At this, Amy groans. “Oh God, it’s not Adam, is it?” 

Rose dissolves into giggles. “Blimey, that’d be a disaster. But no, it’s not.” Her thoughts flit to the brief image she has of her soulmate. “He’s tall, skinny, and a little bit fit. Really great hair.” 

_Why, thank you,_ his voice blossoms in her mind, and Rose sits up in surprise. Shit. She hadn’t meant to share that bit with him. He’d sounded exceptionally smug, a little too much, so she decides to ignore him for now.

“You projected that to him, didn’t you?” Amy looks unabashedly amused at the whole situation, and Rose cringes, nodding in embarrassment. “It takes a while to get used to, figuring out how to communicate and control your thoughts and feelings. Rory and I have been figuring it out since we were kids, and sometimes we still slip. But even though it’s occasionally inconvenient, it’s still great, having one person who truly understands every part of you.” After taking a sip of her water, Amy lifts one eyebrow at Rose. “And the benefits of a telepathic connection in bed…”

Rose blushes, having not even gotten close to thinking about all the perks of telepathy yet. “Yeah?” she asks, biting her lower lip.

“Oh yes,” Amy answers, her eyes sparkling in amusement, but then grows serious. “You’re scared, aren’t you? Especially after Jimmy.”

“I dunno, Amy, it just seems too good to be true, you know?” Her brow furrows, and she nibbles on a thumbnail. “I mean… A _soulmate_.”

Amy reaches a hand out and rests it on Rose’s arm. “Rose, I know. Trust me, I know. But it’s good. It’s _so_ good. Just see where it goes. Give it a chance.”

Already, Rose feels better after talking with Amy, and she knows it’s not the first time she’ll talk to her friend about this. But this morning, she was simply a student and sales worker, content to go about her business without much complication, day after day. And now… with a spill of a coffee she has a soulmate, her life changing forever in an instant. 

“Yeah… You’re right. Thanks, Amy. And thank Rory for letting you share your secret.” She smiles at her friend before looking at her watch and sighing. “Time to work.”

* * *

Throughout the afternoon, Rose experiences the occasional random emotion. A brief spark of panic, delight, curiosity, determination, more panic, and a smug awareness. Each sensation throws her off for a moment, which makes her frequent interactions with customers somewhat disjointed. After the first few ‘out of body’ sensations, she realizes she must be experiencing her soulmate’s feelings. 

Finally, close to the end of her shift after experiencing yet one more harrowing increase in heart rate, Rose reaches out to him. _Do you mind? Give me a bloody heart attack every time you do whatever it is you’re doing._

 _Sorry!_ he all but shouts in her mind. _Bit busy right now!_

Rose huffs in annoyance. _Rude._

Silence.

Thirty minutes later, right as she’s pushing through the front door of the store at the end of her shift, he finally speaks again.

 _When can I take you for coffee?_

_You’re mad,_ she says, shaking her head after the complete absurdity of this afternoon. _What were you doing all day? I felt… whatever it is you felt all day long._

 _What, really?_ he asks in surprise, then seems to remember the rest of her question. _I told you! Something exploded in the lab!_

Biting her lip to keep from laughing, Rose thinks back to their earlier conversation. _And you got it sorted, did you?_ She hopes he catches the sarcasm.

 _Of course I did! I’m brilliant._ Rose rolls her eyes. _Wellllllll, I say it got sorted, but Martha lost an eyebrow, and there’s a hole in the wall._

 _Right…_ Rose doesn’t know what to say to this so she falls back to his original question. _So… Coffee?_

 _Coffee! Yes! Are you busy now?_ he asks.

She smiles. _‘M just leaving Henricks._

_Oh, you work at Henricks! Brilliant. There’s a little place just down the street called Little Blue Box Cafe. Do you know it?_

_Little Blue Box! They’re chips are gorgeous!_ She moans a little in her mind, just thinking about the chips, but she’s not sure if he can ‘hear’ stuff like that. 

There’s a pause before he answers. _Good, very good. I’m, uh, I’m headed there now._

* * *

Ten minutes later, Rose paces anxiously outside the cafe, waiting for his arrival.

“Hello.” A familiar voice, the same voice in her mind, speaks behind her, and Rose spins around. There he is.

Her eyes travel over him from head to toe, taking in his wild mess of brown hair, warm brown eyes and freckled cheeks, and tall, lanky body currently dressed in a trim brown pinstriped suit with, if she’s not mistaken, a few burnt spots around the sleeves. His long brown coat hangs down to his ankles, and when she spots the scuffed converse on his feet, she can’t help the smile that pulls at her lips. He’s more than a little bit fit, actually. Drop dead gorgeous. 

When her eyes meet his, it’s clear he’s completed his own inspection of her appearance, and she’s certain their flushed cheeks are the same color. 

She smiles a wide, tongue touched smile. “Hello.”

They stare dumbly at each other for a moment longer, before Rose thinks a thought. _Are you going to move?_

His eyes widen at her mental contact, and Rose thinks the smile that crosses his face just then is the biggest, most joyful thing she’s ever seen. 

“Oh, sorry! James Noble, at your service.” He holds out a hand, and instead of letting go, he laces their fingers together. Rose stares at their hands, marveling at the way it feels so _right._ He clears his throat. “And you are…?” 

“Right.” Rose blushes and squeezes his hand. “‘M Rose. Rose Tyler.”

“Rose Tyler.” James repeats her name, letting each letter roll of his tongue in a way that makes her feel like everyone else has been saying her name wrong before. Including herself. 

_No one’s ever said my name like that before,_ she thinks at him, before she can stop her thoughts. 

_I’m sure they haven’t._ He answers in her mind, and a cocky grin spreads across his face. 

“Git.” 

“Oi, for being my soulmate, you sure like to throw insults at me,” James protests. 

“Maybe you should buy me some coffee… and chips…” she adds, thinking about the instant coffee she’d choked down earlier, “so I don’t have to anymore.” She looks pointedly at the coffee shop.

He has the decency to look sheepish at her statement. “Quite right.”

They enter the Little Blue Box Cafe, and Rose breathes in the enticing aroma of chips and coffee, two of her favorite things. Moving to the counter, Rose orders before James. The barista calls out their order total, and Rose looks to James in expectation, waiting for him to pay. 

He pats his coat pocket and digs inside. With a frown, he searches the other pocket before moving to his trouser pockets. _Oh blimey,_ he says.

Rose raises her eyebrows. _Oh blimey?_

James turns to Rose, eyes wide. “We might have a bit of a problem.”

“A problem?” she echoes. 

“I may have forgotten my wallet in the lab.” His face pales, and he tugs on an earlobe. “No money.”

Rose bursts into laughter, thoroughly amused at the ridiculousness of it all. “What sort of date are you?” she asks, enjoying the way James moves his mouth without speaking, clearly in a state of disbelief about the whole situation. “Crash into me, spill my coffee… forget your wallet.”

“I… I can’t believe this happened,” James says on an exhale, running his hand through his hair and making it stand up even more. 

With a smirk, Rose lets him off the hook. “Alright, then, tightwad. It’s on me. But next time, you’re paying.” 

“Next time?” This time it’s him echoing her. 

_Of course there’s a next time, you daft git. We’re soulmates._

**Author's Note:**

> Find me at goingtothetardis.tumblr.com!


End file.
